Background/Description: 3 Feet High and Rising is the debut album from Long Island hip hop group De La Soul (consisting of Posdnuos, Trugoy the Dove/Dave and Maseo). Produced by Prince Paul, 3 Feet High and Rising is praised for its playful wordplay, innovative sampling and pioneering use of skits. Released during the rise of gangsta rap, De La Soul's music would become highly influential to alternative and jazz rap.

Guidelines

This is an open thread for you to share your thoughts on the album. Avoid vague statements of praise or criticism. This is your chance to practice being a critic.

It's fine for you to drop by just to say you love the album, but let's try and step it up a bit!!!

How has this album affected hip-hop? WHY do you like this tape? What are the best tracks? Do you think it deserves the praise it gets? Is it the first time you've listened to it? What's your first impression? Have you listened to the artist before? Explain why you like it or why you don't.

!!!! DON'T FEEL BAD ABOUT BEING LATE !!!! Discussion throughout the week is encouraged.

I have actually never listened to this album before, I'm excited to give this one a listen.

EDIT: I'm really liking this so far. Super jazzy and funky, I love the samples.

EDIT 2: This is a great album. It's almost done with it now, and I haven't once felt like I wanted to skip anything. I'm definitely going to give them a better look, I've really only listened to a few of their singles like "Buddy", "Ring Ring Ring", and "Stakes is High."

Overall I'd give this album an 8/10, a great album to have in your collection.

Grab their album Stakes Is High. In my opinion its their best classic record, you will not regret it. Ironically its the first record they did that was not produced by Prince Paul, but I dont think that has anything to do with why its so dope, just an aside.

Definitely, I've been on an older hip-hop binge lately, and these guys are right up my alley, surprisingly. I'm used to stuff like Naughty By Nature and Souls of Mischief, but damn. These guys have skills. I'll pick that up as soon as I can find it haha.

Thats whats up. All good shit. You ever heard Prince Paul's legendary concept album Prince Among Thieves? DEFINITELY get it. Its a who's who of 90s rappers over P.P. production and the entire album is a story. Described originally as a Hip Hop Opera, its easily the most well rounded and expressive concept albums of all time, maybe followed closely by Deltron 3030 and Dr. Octagon.

He also did a collaborative couple of albums with Dan The Automator, who did all the production for Deltron, called Handsome Boy Modeling School. HBMS is not all hip hop, altho it is predominantly. There are two HBMS albums I believe...first one is mostly all hip hop, second is kinda alternative tho. Get em both! haha. the rabbit hole just keeps going and going...

Are You In?: Nike+ Original Run (a pun on "R-U-N" ) is an iTunes exclusive mixtape by hip hop trio De La Soul, in association with Nike. The album is produced by Flosstradamus. In the past, De La Soul collaborated with Nike to make designer shoes, and months later was picked to be a part of Nike's Original Run series, aimed at runners. Are You In? was the first album by De La Soul in five years and is one long continuous mixtape released on iTunes with an additional digital booklet. It was generally well received by music and hip hop critics and was reviewed by Wired, Urb, and the Hip Hop DXonline magazine.

Professor Prince Paul for De La Soul was like George Martin for the Beatles... This was the first hip hop record where the sampling was playful in the sense that it was fun to listen to because it sounded like it was fun to make. It's impossible to separate Plugs 1,2,3s rhyme style with Prince Paul's production.

If you like this album, do yourself a favor and check out "Done By The Forces Of Nature" by the Jungle Brothers. The JBs were the third core member (along with De La and Tribe) of the Native Tongues clique. Unfortunately, they seem to be the group that time has forgotten.

For a good four or five years, this was my favorite album of all time, but listening to it as often as I did/do the skits, while still amusing, do get pretty tiresome; imagine like watching the same commercials over and over during a marathon of your favorite show or whatever.

That said, I've got nothing but love for 3 Feet. Every track is indisputably a classic imo, and even more so when taking context into consideration, so it's incredibly consistent. Pos and Trugoy/Dave do well in fitting the "jolly round black dude" archetype (definitely a good thing to me) and Prince Paul is a damn production wizard. There's so much character and positivity (positiveness?) in every aspect that unless you're a fucking cynical crab it's pretty much impossible not to find something you enjoy. It's a really damn tough choice but if I had to pick I'd say Ghetto Thang, Eye Know, Tread Water, and Say No Go are my favorites.

It's really unfortunate but imo the De La plugs (and their brothers in the Jungle for that matter) have largely been overshadowed by their cousins in the Quest, and while I do love the Tribe in their own right I personally like De La's work a lot more.

I downloaded their whole discography when they released it for free, and the number of songs is overwhelming. So i've been wanting to start by listening to their debut, from the download to the 25th anniversary of it, to now, but just haven't found the time. Now that its album of the week, I'll definitely stop making excuses and listen to it this weekend, and finally take a break from Cocaine Pinata (but it's just too good)!

The first single that I heard from this album was Potholes In My Lawn. I was quite young at the time, and DeLa's no frills approach called for a greater measure of listening maturity on my part. Of the Native Tongues they were the ones who had me scratching my head the most with their puzzling approach to rhymes. ATCQ was just cool, accessible, universal, The JB's told you what time it was and were quite direct about it, DeLa just spelled intrigue.

My favorite single from this album was Buddy on some feel good party shit and going through my own pubescent journey, the tune just hit! Say No Go! was one of many songs that were anti drug dealing and drug use. My how hip hop has changed!

I remember the album being fun on my first listen, but it was too much material and mystery for me to wrap my young head around, so I kept it to a select few cuts then eventually shelved it for a while. Their second and third albums, De La Soul Is Dead and Buhloone Mind State, eventually lead me to go back and listen again. Everytime I tried I would hit a wall though. One winter while in my teens I had to go way out in the country to visit family. The area was dead as hell. I used that opportunity to give 3 Ft another gander. I knew it was great, I liked it, but now I was finally able to appreciate it.

Certain songs and skits found themselves in the fabric of my daily speak like Delacratic, L.I.F.E., Magic Number, Take It Off, Soap

This album got a lot of play too. The hard rocks bumped it along with the nerds. The gems were when they would release singles with unreleased joints on the B-Side and the remixes. De La has always had a reputation of blessing their fans with extras like that. One of my sisters was a pretty big fan during this time and would kill it with the remixes at her crib. Good times...

Classic album yes indeed it is. Not my favorite, De La Soul is Dead holds that spot for me. The lyrics they wrote for 3 Ft were dope and still are today. It's also nice to see their artistic growth.

One of the biggest thing about this album and this group to me is how real they are about being their genuine selves, individuals outside of the common norms of the culture.

I'd have to give the best rap album of 1989 to 3 Feet. As a person who doesn't adapt to change very well, it amazed me how much how much I loved the album right when I listened to it. The state of hip-hop was centred on gold chains, and the streets. De La totally came out of left field and delivered an album that was a success both commercially, and critically. Before its release - considering the state of rap - nobody would've expected an album like this would have succeeded in the rap game. This is what makes 3 Feet such a great album.

Here are my favorite tracks on the album:

Jenifa Taught Me - What's crazy was I had a thing with a girl named 'Jenna' when this came out so I bumped this to try and lure her in a matter of speaking. Super relevant for me, I coined the term 'Jenny' at school.

Ghetto Thang - De La's one attempt at conscious rap was a decent try but it obviously isn't their strong suit, good attempt though

Eye Know - The whistle on this hook (and throughout) epitomizes the feel good vide of the album. The song is a metaphor between hip-hop and a soul-mate, but overall it's just a happy song.

Potholes In My Lawn - Their extended metaphors are brilliant, and this one's my favourite. 'Get the daisies for the potholes in my lawn.' And that flip of 'Little Ol Country Boy' on the chorus. Amazed at the sampling skill. This got me hooked on De La.

Plug Tunin' - To me this is the best lyrical content on the album. Pos and Mase's craft are above the status quo here.

Buddy - This is the first Native Tongue cut. Kind of a non-sensical, fun song, but the chemistry De La, Q, and the JB's compatibility
stands out.

Me Myself And I - This is the song that made it clear that De La were hippies. It just sounded too psychedelic, plus the video. Awesome track that put De La on the map.

The production on this was crazy, Prince Paul was a master of the sample. I've often considered it as one of the best usages of samples EVER because after the Transmitting Live from Mars incident, acquiring rights to sample was more strict than ever. Overall, this is a out-of nowhere, optimistic album that was accepted by the rap game amidst the rise of gangsta rap. It amazes me that a group of guys who just wanted to make feel-good music about daisies and happiness were able to create an essential album in the late 80's and invent a new style of rap. I've wrote way too much so I just have to throw in that they invented skits and the daisy movement which are kind of a big deal. THIS IS THE DAI-SY AGE.

Classic album, some many great songs, there isn't one song I don't like on it. It has one of the greatest and most recognisable hip hop songs of all time in Me, Myself and I. The wordplay on this album is great and the melodic chill beats just fit songs so well. Top 10 albums of all time for me. I can't recommend it enough and if you feel up for it, you should check check out their other stuff too. De La Soul Is Dead, Stakes is High and Buhloone Mindstate are all great.

The intro and the skits to me are fantastic and really add to the character of this album. The funky and hippie aspect was revolutionary at the time and really set the bar for alternative rap and the Native Tongues acts.

I used to blast this from my stereo and hang out on the corner listening to it through my apartment windows. The girls on the block used to really like it when Jenifa Taught Me came on and do a hopscotch type dance to it. Good times.

I love this album, I've never smiled so much while listening to music. Eye Know is one of my favorite songs of all time, and I still give it a listen most days. Can You Keep a Secret gets me smiling every time. Same goes for Tread Water. It's so positive that it puts me in a good mood instantly. I never expected this when I first listened to it, because the way it was described to me made it sound like nothing I had heard before and it was like nothing I had heard before.

What really draws me to 3ft Hi And Rising is the complete sense of individuality with the project. Everything from the beats, skits, and rhymes are completely their own. Sounds like nothing before it, and nothing after it.

One of the essential summer-time albums. Good vibes all around thought provoking shieet.

And everytime the whistle comes in on Eye Know, everything in the world is alright

I really do enjoy this album, but I think I spoiled myself by listening to tribe first. When listening to this you realize this is the basis of what tribe expanded upon and improved in my opinion. I used tribe as my first intro to rap because as a child I hated it but used tribe to try to be able to get over that hatred without even listening, the hatred also came from only hearing party rap music as a 5th grader (hearing riding dirty everyday on the bus gets annoying). This album should be appreciated for it's impact, it helped jazz get onto the beats of rap at the time and was the influencer of my favorite rap group tribe.

This album is so great in its positivity and production and just hilarity I love it. Prince paul is one weird dude and it shows in his production and skits (Can you keep a secret?). Plug one and two are both great and the sampling and hooks on this joint are perfect. I love this album and it really puts me in a good mood. Although lyrics aren't the standout in this album they're enough to get the job done. 9/10

i've always found it interesting that classic backpack hip hop and gangster rap pretty much coexisted at the exact same time.. sometimes i feel like you couldn't have one without the other.. now a days artists try to do a little bit of everything but it seems like the more the pendulum would swing in the direction of hard core rap, the more it would swing back in the opposite direction with artists like de la soul and digital underground..

sometime i miss those extremes.. artists really tried to master/develop a very specific and unique niche for themselves

Yeah I loved this album when I first heard it about 11 years ago and it was one of my favourites for a while. I listened to it again about a year ago and I really wasn't feeling it any more. It's really influential, an incredibly important album but I don't think it has aged well.

This might just be the style of that time though. I much prefer listening to albums after 93, they seem a bit grittier.

I like this album, but i find it week compared to the other Zulu bands of the era and kind of silly compared to A Tribe Called Quest. Maybe it's because I was a diehard ATCQ before I heard of them but it's just doesn't add up as great as people take it to me. I totally understand why it is considered a classic but it's not my thing I guess.

I really listened to this when they released it for free in Feb. and I was incredibly impressed by the production. So many samples being throw in there on incredible levels to make some really great beats and skits.

This album and "is dead" were two of.my favourite hip hop records as a kid.
I love Prince Paul-era De La in general.

It was also one of the few non-gangsta/non-harsh rap albums I liked..even now. As someone who didn't like rap til he heard Public Enemy, it seems strange I'd be so into this but it was just strange enough to pull me in.